


He Was Poison

by witchlips



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Abuse, F/M, Gen, Poison
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-16
Updated: 2017-11-16
Packaged: 2019-02-03 03:19:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12739962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/witchlips/pseuds/witchlips
Summary: He was poisoning them, so it was only fitting the favor was returned.AU. Abuse is described a bit.





	He Was Poison

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this because I wanted a fic in which Eileen poisons Tobias. *shrug* It's got some abuse description, but I skipped the majority of it, so.

He was like a poison. A slow acting, excruciating toxicant seeping through the rotted boards of their little house and leeching away her life and the childhood of their son. Looking at him made her stomach roil and pitch as if she had swallowed mouthfuls of venom down in great heaving gulps. It didn’t used to be that way. He used to make her blood sing like it was made of gold.

 

That’s why Eileen had thought he’d get better for a while. 

 

_ Times are just tough _ , she had told herself,  _ it will stop once he’s found work again. Once he’s grown used to Severus’ accidental magic. Once he’s calmed down. _

 

Tobias never calmed down. A couple years had passed and it had only gotten worse. Tobias spit toxic words at Severus anytime something odd happened. He blamed Eileen every chance he could for Severus being magical and for him losing the job at the factory. He snarled, “ _ witch _ ” at her as if it were a slur. As if he were one of the boys she had grown up with in the Slytherin common room when they spoke of muggleborns and half-bloods. 

 

Severus sobbed in her lap, clinging to her thin dress and asked her, “ _ Why, mummy? _ ” and she had no answer. No way of telling him. She pet his soft black hair as she sat beside him on his antiquated mattress and told him, “ _ He doesn’t understand… There’s nothing wrong with you, Severus. He’ll come around. _ ”

 

Even as less money was coming in, Tobias was drinking more and more. Eileen went hungry most of the time just to have the food to feed Severus, but he still wasn’t getting enough. He was growing and needed the energy so very badly.

 

She had taken to bringing Severus down to the dirty river that cut the town down the middle. There weren’t many fish in the muddied water, but there were quite a few frogs around the banks, and she taught him how to catch them. Later, when he had gained a little more dexterity to his fingers, she taught him how to get every little bit of meat they held off the tiny bones. He was proud of his accomplishments, of being able to help feed them, and her heart would lift just a little at his gratified smile while they worked.

 

When Tobias asked about the meat she told him it was chicken. He would grunt and the oils from the meat would seep over his fingers and chin, and he always asked her where she was getting the money to buy chicken.

 

She would normally look away and not answer and Tobias would forget that he had even asked, he was so drunk. One night when Severus was seven, however, she had felt the black bile and venom bubble up in her throat. Instead of stopping as it usually did, it boiled right over her tongue, and she replied in a snarl she had used years ago when the fire had burned in her hot and passionate, “ _ Not from  _ **_you_ ** .”

 

Tobias paused mid-chew, and he looked at her as if he had never seen her before. As if he had forgotten she had a voice. 

 

Eileen gripped her fork so tightly her knuckles turned bone white. Her heart felt like it was pumping acid through her body, and her panting breaths burnt her lungs as if the air was filled with embers and ash.

 

“ _ What _ ,” Tobias hissed through his drink-yellowed teeth, “ _ did you just say to me, you ungrateful wench _ ?”

 

From the corner of her eye, Eileen could see Severus beginning to tremble and her heart clenched. She had never done this before. Never challenged Tobias. She had always let him run over them verbally, because the man was towering, covered in wiry muscle stretched over angled bone and she feared he would hit one of them if she did not submit. That fear flared with a vengeance as she turned to glance worriedly at Severus.

 

She could not have helped it. It was still a mistake. Even drunk, Tobias was keen on sighting weaknesses. The man struck out one of his strong, calloused hands, gripping Severus’ thin little arm so hard the boy cried out, and Eileen acted immediately, practically shoving the dining table in her haste to get to closer. The slap she landed on Tobias’ scruffy face stung her hand and sent a jolt of pain through the joints of her fingers.

 

The quick unthinking action caused Tobias to let go of Severus as his hands went to cover the rapidly welting hand print across his cheekbone. In that moment, Eileen caught Severus’ eyes, “ _ Go! Go to your room! _ ”

 

She was shaking violently, the acid running through her burning at her nerves as she watched Severus scramble away and heard the door of his room slam shut.

 

Tobias stood from his seat, seething fury in every inch of his face and posture. Eileen gripped the fabric of her faded dress in both hands to keep them still, but could do nothing for the chattering of her teeth that refused to clench. Even stooped over in a rage, Tobias was taller than her, with more physical strength than she had ever been able to claim.

 

She was unable to escape before the man had caught her by her long dark hair, his fingers smearing thin oil into the tangle of it. Tobias pulled her closer, and Eileen struggled to resist, shoving back against his bony chest. Tobias slapped her hard enough the world went white for a moment and she had to stop pushing just to stay standing. In the time she needed to reconfigure herself, he had gripped both of her thin wrists in the other hand and brought her pale face closer to his.

 

The rancid smell of his breath caught in Eileen’s throat and she could feel bile rising in her chest. They were both panting heavily and she could not stop breathing in the stomach churning scent.

 

“ _ You vile witch,”  _ He snarled. His eyes were burning with something new. Something beyond the anger and frustration he normally turned on his family. Eileen felt her fear rise to new heights as she identified the loathing that had finally made its way into Tobias’ expression. She had seen hatred before, and this was it. There was no more love in this man for his wife or son, “ _ You think you can just hit me? That I’ll let you get away with that?” _

 

Eileen shook her head as much as she could caught in the steel trap of his hand and felt her knees give out a little as she stumbled in his hold, “ _ No, Tobias, please-” _

 

The man was well beyond hearing her now. Well beyond caring. He shoved her to the floor, but didn’t let go of her hair. The sear of Eileen’s scalp caused her to scramble to keep from adding to the pain by going down completely.

 

“ _ I’ll show you _ ,” Tobias thundered from somewhere up above.

 

* * *

 

 

When Eileen woke up the morning following, she was laying sprawled across the old couch in the living room with her sore head resting against something warm. Her body ached and pinched all over as if her skin were too tight. A small hand was gently threading through her hair, and even though it was running over sore spots, it felt like heaven.

 

“ _ Mum _ ,” came a small whisper, and Eileen turned her head to look up, discovering that one eye had swollen shut. The blurry face of her son swam above her and Eileen gave him a watery smile.

 

“ _ Hey, baby… Are you okay? _ ” Her voice was raspy and tremulous, “ _ He didn’t come to your room…?” _

 

“ _ No, mum,”  _ Severus sniffled, removing his hand from her hair to rub at his running nose, “ _ He went to bed, and then left this morning.” _

 

Eileen felt something in her relax slightly at this and she smiled a little easier. With a some help she managed to sit up next to Severus, tucking him under her arm. He wrapped his own arms around her middle, the bones of his elbows obvious against her spine and hip in a way that seemed to snap her patience in half.

 

“ _ Severus…”  _ She whispered, squeezing him closer to her, “ _ How would you like to brew a potion today…?” _

 

Severus looked up at her with a little excitement, despite the events of the night before and nodded vigorously. She knew how much he loved to watch her brew on the few occasions Tobias was out of the house long enough for her to make anything useful.

 

“ _ What will we make?” _ He asked her in the same whispering tone, as if he knew what she was thinking somehow. As if he knew she was going to get them out of this and no matter how she did it, he would help her however he could.

 

Severus helped her down to the river that morning, following her direction to a part of the bank that had been undisturbed by any of the residents. He helped Eileen lean against the damp rock bridge that was close to the slight hill of the bank. She caught her breath and pointed up the little rise.

 

“ _ Do you see those flowers, there, Severus?”  _ She asked him, “ _ The white, five-petaled ones that grow in clusters?” _

 

Severus turned to follow her long pale finger with his eyes, “ _ Yes, mum.” _

 

_ “That’s hemlock,”  _ Eileen whispered, allowing her hand to drop heavily to her side. She winced as it jolted a bruise on her hip, but covered it before Severus had turned back to her, “ _ We need the roots and seeds of those flowers… Put as many as you can into the jar I gave you, and wear the dragon-hide gloves.” _

 

Severus frowned up at her from behind his long dark hair, his eyes glittering with calculation, “ _ What does it do?” _

 

Eileen slid down the rough stone with a heavy sigh, sitting on the damp grass of the bank with little thought to how the cold water seeped through her dress.

 

_ “It’s a poison.” _

 

Severus’ eyes widened and he looked at her for a few minutes with absolute shock. The boy took a shaky breath and gripped the lidded jar in his little pale hands tightly. He wrestled with himself for several minutes as Eileen looked on, feeling oddly calm.

 

“ _ You… you’re going to kill him…?”  _ Severus whispered, his voice so quiet it only reached Eileen because it had carried in the silence of the river bank.

 

She smiled at her son with a sense of peace she had not felt in quite some time.

 

“ _ Wear the gloves, Severus. _ ”

 

* * *

 

They returned to the dingy little house by noon with a jar filled to the brim with hemlock roots and seeds. Eileen sent Severus to get the little cauldron she had taken with her years ago from its hiding place under his bed, as she pulled out a chair to sit in at the kitchen counter while she chopped the roots up into quarter inch slices. When Severus returned, lugging the small cauldron in both slim arms, Eileen took it from him so she could set it over the gas flame of the stove and requested that he retrieve the cheesecloth from one of the drawers.

 

“ _ You must make sure the roots are cut very small so that the processing time is cut,”  _ Eileen whispered as she worked. Severus watched her from her side with ravenous eyes, taking in every detail as he always did when she made potions, “ _ After that, we put all the roots and seeds into the cheesecloth. We don’t want to leave any left behind in the finished product.” _

 

Eileen’s hands were steady for the first time since she had woken up as she swept the plant matter into the cheesecloth and tied it tightly with a bit of thread, “ _ The base is Witch Hazel instead of the water bases you’ve seen me do before.” _

 

Severus started and then shot off to get the bottle of Witch Hazel from the bathroom cabinet. He returned panting slightly, his bony shoulders raising a little with exertion.

 

“ _ Thank you, love,” _ Eileen smiled at Severus as she took the cold glass bottle from him. Very carefully she filled the bottom of the cauldron with the astringent, and then handed it back. It took a moment to come to a boil. Severus ran the bottle back to the bathroom in that time. When he came back, he watched Eileen lower the cheesecloth into the boiling liquid and tie the loose end of its thread to the cauldron’s handle.

 

“ _ How long do we wait?” _ Severus asked her in a very soft voice that made Eileen look at him with concern. The boy looked only curious, not at all as upset as his tone had suggested. She frowned at him and took off the gloves she had been wearing before resting cold fingers against the flushed heat of his cheek.

 

“ _ An hour…”  _ Eileen told him in the same whisper she had been using all day, “ _ I want you to pack your things and stay in your room until I come for you tonight. Do you understand?” _

 

_ “Yes, mum,”  _ Severus whispered back hoarsely. Eileen smiled and patted his warm cheek gently.

 

“ _ Good boy.” _

 

* * *

 

 

Tobias stumbled in at a quarter to seven, growling loudly about dinner, and tracking mud through the hallway. Eileen listened to him bluster along the short walk until he swung into the dining room with a thunderous scowl.

 

“ _ Where’s the boy?”  _ Tobias grumbled as he slumped heavily into the rickety old chair he usually sat at at the head of the table. He immediately began to dig into the food, oil already dripping from his fingers and lips.

 

“ _ Asleep in his room _ ,” Eileen whispered back, unable to keep herself from watching the man shovel food into his mouth without a second of hesitation. Tobias grunted in reply, his eyes not rising from his plate for even a moment.

 

The man was only half way through when his joints stiffened and he slumped forward beside his plate. Eileen watched as his eyes flickered heavily and his breath came more and more heavy.

 

“ _ What... did you… do?”  _ Tobias slurred, his hands grasping clumsily for purchase against the scarred wood of the table. Eileen just shook her head and looked away for a moment. Her fingers wrapped the fabric of her dress over them tight enough to cut off blood flow before she looked back at the quickly swelling man.

 

“ _ I won’t let you hurt us anymore,”  _ She told him firmly. Her voice came out strong and real, full of that fire again, “ _ You couldn’t get away with this, Tobias. I waited so long for you to come around. You starved us. Of food and of love. I won’t let you get away with it.” _

 

Tobias gurgled somewhere in the back of his throat in response and tried to reach out for Eileen, but his hand missed and instead pulled his dinner plate from the table in a crash of breaking porcelain.

 

“ _ Mum?”  _ Came Severus’ soft voice from the doorway. Eileen took her eyes off of Tobias and swept around the table to crowd Severus down the hallway and to the door of the house.

 

_ “You have your things?”  _ She asked, grabbing their coats from the hooks beside the door and grabbing her own bag from where she’d stashed it below them earlier.

 

“ _ Yes,”  _ Severus answered shakily. He took his coat from her outstretched arm and when she smiled at him and pulled her wand from her own coat, he frowned.

 

“ _ Take my arm. We’re never coming back here.” _


End file.
